Florida’s Alan Grayson Looking to Take Marco Rubio’s Senate Seat

In an interview with The Hill yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said he was considering running for the Senate in 2016, citing specific strengths that would give him an advantage over Senator Marco Rubio (R) or any other potential opponent.

“We have some very substantial advantages,” said Grayson. “I have over 100,000 individual contributors; no one else on the House Democratic side has anything like that. We have raised as much as $5 million in an individual cycle for a House seat, again there’s nobody [who has done that].”

Grayson did, however, say that he might not run if current head of the Democratic National Committee Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz decides to get in the race.

“She’s the head of the national party, extremely well-known and well-regarded,” Grayson told The Hill. “She’s got an enormous base of support not just in South Florida but around the country.”

Grayson has gotten plenty of attention for his outspoken nature, especially when it comes to criticizing individual Republicans and the GOP as a whole.

“Grayson has said that the Republican healthcare plan is to ‘don’t get sick’ but to ‘die quickly’ if you do. He’s said that he has trouble listening to former Vice President Dick Cheney when he speaks because of the ‘blood that drips from his lips when he’s talking.’ And he’s called Republicans ‘foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.’”

When asked about his chances against Rubio, Grayson said the current senator is vulnerable, especially with Hispanic voters.

“Frankly [Rubio’s] done a snow job on Hispanics in Florida,” he said, “[and they are] starting to recognize that’s the case. When you actually inform Hispanics about Rubio’s actual positions on the issues, his statements, what he supports, what he doesn’t support, then the Hispanic vote drops down to close to nothing, which is an important block.”

“My district is … almost 40 percent Hispanic,” continued Rep. Grayson, “and time after time, I win 80 percent of the Hispanic vote. I’ve shown I can carry Hispanics like no one else in Central Florida, Democrat or Republican.”